The Nexus
by agentjedi
Summary: Darth Vader's ending is only Anakin Skywalker's beginning. Sequel to Keep Falling Down. WIP.
1. Flurries of Energy

**TITLE:** The Nexus  
**AUTHOR:** agentj  
**STATUS:** incomplete  
**CATEGORY:** Drama: Angst, Friendship (Anakin/Obi-Wan), Romance (Anakin/Padmé)  
**CHARACTERS:** Anakin, Obi-Wan, Padmé  
**TIMEFRAME:** Post-Saga: post-RotJ  
**CONTENT WARNING:** none  
**SUMMARY:** Darth Vader's ending is only Anakin Skywalker's beginning.  
**AUTHOR'S NOTES:** Technically, this is a sequel to Keep Falling Down, but it's easily readable as a "what happened next" scene to the end of the series.  
**DISCLAIMER:** I willingly and willfully use characters and situations copyrighted by Twentieth Century Fox and Lucasfilm Ltd. without permission, and without monetary gain. Additional characters and situations are copyright 2005 Lisa D. Jenkins.

* * *

**PART 1 - Flurries of Energy**

He was awoken by the sound of sunlight. Yes, he knew the sun could make no sound, but then again, no sun could shed this light. 

Peering at his surroundings, he looked dazed and confused. Although the furnishings were familiar, the feeling they gave off was not. He sat up from the luxurious sleep couch and blinked slowly. Light infused itself from every crevasse, every pore, even the shadows themselves, as if every object was made out of the light itself. 

There was a roaring sound that had wakened him, nonetheless, and it seemed to be coming from everywhere. It was a low rumble like the sound of the swish of sand during a storm, only without the sand. Or perhaps it was like the sound of a torrent rainstorm, only without the rain. 

Swinging his legs from under the covers, his bare feet found the floor. He stared down at his legs as if they shouldn't be there at all. For the first time since his childhood, the ground was warm, welcoming. Still, something was calling him, and he had to seek it out. He stood, grabbed a cloak laying at the foot of the sleep couch, and draped it around his shoulders. His bare feet padded out into the common room. 

He blinked at the bright light roaring from the open veranda. His footfalls slowed and finally stopped before the open space, his eyes transfixed on the opaline shimmers that streamed like water around his abode and outward toward the sea of white. 

The light was singing. 

Individual streams of light rolled fluidly off the top of the vaulting and raced onward into infinity. Each new light added to the light already streaming past the open area; a new harmonic of sound added to the symphony. 

"Magnificent, isn't it?" a low, cultured voice spoke in reverent tones. 

He took a sharp breath, for he recognised the voice, but he did not turn to face it. Reluctantly, his eyes fell from the river of light and tried to look from over his own shoulder, still unwilling to turn his body toward the source of the voice. 

The sound of heavy robes shifted behind him. He knew that sound like he knew the heat of the sun on his face. As the clap of duraskin soles slapped upon the carpeted floor, he returned his gaze to the resounding light. 

An intimate presence hung at his shoulder, and although he still refused to turn, he could see the reddish browns and tan tunics he knew he would see from the corner of his eye. 

"Yes," he pushed out the sound of his voice with an exhalation. He couldn't deny it. The resplendence before them was astounding. 

He felt eyes probing him, studying him. His body trembled from a torrent of emotions that swam throughout his body. He wanted to spin around and clasp the man behind him in an enveloping embrace and never let go. He wanted to shout words of anger and regret. He wanted to fall to the floor in a heap and bewail the unfairness of life. 

Instead, he just stood there, shaking. 

A reassuring weight pressed against his shoulder. "Anakin," said the voice behind him, emotion leaking out of each syllable like a dam about to burst. 

The deluge of emotion spilled forth from Anakin as he gasped to hear that voice say his name once more. 

He turned. "Obi-Wan..." Anakin clasped his mentor's shoulders, his face a mixture of joy and regret. Obi-Wan smiled up at Anakin, the sadness of the older man's relief making his eyes glitter. 

"I...was beginning to think this was a dream..." Anakin whispered, afraid to break the spell. 

"No. It's real, Anakin," Obi-Wan responded, his arms clasping those of his former apprentice. 

"Then—that means I'm—" 

"Dead—yes." Obi-Wan smiled wider in a privately-shared joke. 

Anakin's mouth flattened and tried to spread across his face, as if it had forgotten how to form expressions. With a gasp, he finally found a smile—although it was laced with a deep sadness—and he pulled the man to his taller frame, engulfing him with his embrace. 

Wrapping his arms around his now fully-grown charge, Obi-Wan blinked back the tears that stung his eyes. 

"Welcome home, Anakin." The man's voice radiated the warmth of deep affection and love. 

Anakin's tall frame shuddered as he tried to suppress tears of anguish and sorrow. Waves of compassion flowed between his mentor and himself, soothing the wounds that remained between them. 

With a deep cleansing sigh, Anakin released Obi-Wan. His face still wet with tears, Anakin examined Obi-Wan's features. He appeared before his friend as he had once been decades ago—a Jedi in the prime of his life with the subtle touches of grey outlining his face, the gentle lines of laughter and pain tracing his features. Obi-Wan's blue-green orbs glittered with underlying amusement and contentment. 

Anakin's eyes wandered past the man before him, glancing over the furnishings that had once made up the apartment he and his wife secretly shared on Coruscant. But this was not Coruscant. The lingering traces of his wife's energies could not be felt here, only the flowing light of the Force. 

"Where...where are we?" Anakin asked. 

"Somewhere between the world of the living...and the next," Obi-Wan answered. 

Turning, Anakin faced the resplendence of the streaming light. Tears stung again at his eyes. Many times Anakin had thought about what awaited him on the other side. He had imagined all sorts of horrors and tortures which he was certain was his due. Instead, Anakin rediscovered his faith, releasing his control to the will of the Force, and found forgiveness. 

Anakin's final fate was kinder than he would ever have imagined for himself, but yet...Anakin half-expected to see her waiting for him. _Why should she?_ he asked himself. _I was the cause of all her pain and suffering. I took away her life—took her from the one thing she most desired—a family..._

"My prison," Anakin announced with finality, his eyes falling to the floor beneath him. 

"No!" cried Obi-Wan as he placed a reassuring hand on his friend's shoulder. "No, Anakin! You are free to go where you wish!" 

Anakin's eyes rose thoughtfully, his mind spinning as he thought about all the places he once dreamed of as a boy on the remote planet of Tatooine. "Anywhere?" 

"Yes, Anakin!" Obi-Wan's smile spread across his face and was caught by Anakin who began to grin again himself. 

For the first time in his life—or death, Anakin thought with bemusement—he was free to choose. Free to be whatever he wanted to be. No longer did the title Jedi or Chosen One or slave or Sith come attached to his being. 

Anakin frowned, realising he had no idea what to do with his freedom. "Where would I go?" 

Obi-Wan's smile turned thoughtfully mischievous. "Well...you have a choice. You could...stay here. Watch your grandchildren grow up." 

"Grandchildren!" Anakin's eyes lighted with surprised amusement as he turned slightly to look down on his friend. 

Obi-Wan nodded. 

Anakin drew in his thoughts and pondered that possibility. He had missed seeing his children grow into the incredible individuals they had become, but perhaps he could enjoy watching his children's children, living vicariously through their own experiences. 

"Yes," he answered, a gentle happiness crossing his countenance. "I would like that. Very much." He smiled silently to himself as he imagined the children that rogue Han Solo and his rebellious daughter Leia Organa would produce. Was the galaxy ready for such a bond? 

Had it been ready for the bond of a reckless Jedi and his senator, his angel queen? 

No, perhaps not. 

Anakin let out a long, lingering sigh and shook his head, tossing his tawny locks lightly. "No. I've interfered in my children's lives too much already. Caused too much pain. I should...let them live their own lives. Make their own choices." _And mistakes,_ Anakin amended silently to himself. 

Anakin felt Obi-Wan's gentle understanding through the Force, his hand still pressing its support against his back. He savoured the feeling of untarnished acceptance, and accepted what fate the Force still had in store for him. 

"Where to next, Master?" Anakin smirked down at his friend, the old strands of camaraderie returning between them. 

Obi-Wan's mouth parted in a wide smile, then his eyes drifted over the veranda into the streaming light ahead. "We begin a new journey." 

Anakin's gaze followed that of his master. As he viewed the luminescence, he felt a tug at the energies within him, pulling him toward the nexus, like the call of the ocean to the river. 

Raising his arms as if in benediction, Anakin closed his eyes and let the energies of the Force penetrate him. The effulgence that surrounded him became a part of him, and suddenly he, too, was a strand of light flowing towards the source of all life. 


	2. Burried the Hatchet

**PART 2 - Buried the Hatchet**

He was the light. The light was him. It flowed all around him, through him, and his soul sang. It rose from his inner being, gathering strength from his connection with the light, pulsating out from him through his joy. He reached out with what he would have once considered his hands and felt the vibrations of the light all around him, the light that was a part of him, the light that emitted from him. 

Instinctively, he knew he was reaching a destination. He felt as if he were being stuffed back into a tighter space, becoming more dense. The light around him began to take shape—a spire here, a movement there—and slowly, like a sleeper becoming aware of being awake again, he found himself sitting in the passenger's seat of a speeder. 

Anakin blinked and watched the cityscape take form before him, as if everything had been overexposed and the lights were slowly dimmed down. 

Coruscant. 

Like the apartment, it was perfectly simulated, but it was not the same. The dark snaking energies that intertwined with the light he had felt in life were not present here. Here, everything was clean and fresh, like the smell of the earth after a rainstorm. Clouds rose in the stratosphere on the horizon, and the rising light of the sun cast a purplish haze. 

Anakin leaned over the speeder's rim, taking in the sight of the other traffic crisscrossing its way through Coruscant's skies. The wind tousled his unwieldily locks, making it dance in the air. Leaning back, Anakin laughed for what felt like the first time in centuries. _This_ was what it felt like to fly. 

Anakin felt Obi-Wan's amused glance, and he turned to his mentor. The two men exchanged a grateful smile. 

Anakin turned his attention to their destination. The Jedi Temple loomed ahead, hazy in the morning light. Anakin winced slightly with a pang of guilt. 

As Darth Vader, Anakin had returned to the Temple after the initial purges, but his master, the Emperor, had ordered reconstruction on the site, turning the highest turret into his personal throne room. How ironic, Anakin thought, that despite the lack of the Jedi Council in their chambers, he had continued to bow and scrape to a new master in those same hallowed halls. 

Now the Temple was back, fully restored to its former glory, dazzling in the sun, the grand Jedi Guardians and warriors standing outside, carved from stone. Peering down with curiosity, Anakin watched people traversing in and out, many of whom were civilians and not Jedi at all. 

Lifting his head from the sight, Anakin was about to question Obi-Wan about it when a wisp of smoke caught his eyes. The long white column plumed out of one of the spires, reminiscent of the night Anakin Skywalker had last stepped foot into the Temple and the destruction he as Darth Vader had wrought on the Jedi. 

Gasping, Anakin turned his head and shielded his face from the sight. His voice shook as he cried, "It's burning! I can't! Please, Obi-Wan—!" 

A reassuring hand rested on Anakin's shoulder, urging him to turn back. "Anakin! It's all right. See? Look!" 

Hesitantly, Anakin returned his gaze to the Temple. Now that they were closer, Anakin could make out a small contained bonfire on the terrace of an upper level. Small figures were moving around it. 

Obi-Wan pulled up to the railing and parked their speeder next to it. "Hello there!" he called out to the younglings who were running around the area, apparently playing some kind of game. Upon hearing Obi-Wan's voice, the younglings stopped and stared, their expressions pensive as if they were in deep, deep poodoo. 

Obi-Wan jumped out of the speeder down to the terrace. "What are you doing out here with a bonfire..._without_ adult supervision?" He crossed his arms in front of his chest, his voice commanding a tone of rebuke that would bring a Gundark to its knees. 

Suddenly the door to the terrace opened and out burst Mace Windu welding several bars of sweets. "I got the charo bars—!" Mace's face fell when he spied Obi-Wan and Anakin on the terrace. 

Obi-Wan lifted an eyebrow as he looked upon the fellow Jedi Master. "I take it _you're_ responsible for the youngling's lack of supervision, Mace?" 

"Uh..." Realising he held incriminating evidence, Mace dropped his hand and hid it behind his back. Putting on a broad smile, Mace waved his free hand and said cheerfully, "Hey, Anakin! Welcome back!" 

Feeling a bit out of place, Anakin looked behind himself, then back at Mace, as if he suspected the man were greeting someone else entirely. "Uh...hello," Anakin responded. 

"Oh! Before I forget..." Mace reached inside his tunic. "I believe I have something that belongs to you." 

Mace took a step forward with a broad smile and held out the cylindrical object. 

Anakin looked warily at it, then back at Mace. 

"Go on!" Mace encouraged, waving the sabre hilt in the air before him. 

Still with some hesitation, Anakin took his lightsabre back from Mace and smiled politely. "Thank you, Master Windu." 

Mace grabbed Anakin's forearm and gave it a tight squeeze. "I know you haven't made your decision yet on rejoining the Jedi but...I trust you. I have faith in you." To add weight to his point, Mace took another step forward and patted Anakin on the shoulder. 

Anakin regarded the silver object in his hands. "Th—thank you." 

Obi-Wan, his arms still crossed, continued to look bemusedly at Mace. The dark-skinned man fidgeted, then said, "Uh...we were about to make goo bars. Care to join us?" He smiled broadly, showing off his teeth. 

Obi-Wan chuckled and uncrossed his arms. He turned and winked to the younglings who had been watching them. Seeing that the fellow Jedi was not really angry at them, they smiled back and giggled. Anakin found his former master's laid-back attitude a comforting relief and smiled as well. 

"Perhaps some other time," Obi-Wan responded. He put a hand on Anakin's shoulder. "There's some folks waiting to welcome home this young man." Obi-Wan softly smiled up at his friend, his friend smiling back in response. 

"Bye, Obi-Wan!" the younglings chorused, waving. "Good-bye, Anakin!" 

The two Jedis waved back as they made their way to the doorway into the Temple. 

"Well," Anakin spoke, still smiling warily. "That was...unexpected." 

"I suspect you'll find a lot has changed here," Obi-Wan explained as he palmed the door. As if to make his point, large broad leaves blocked the entryway. 

"What the—?" Anakin exclaimed as he pushed aside the foliage. Inside was a veritable jungle, green plants covering nearly every surface, pushing their way toward the towering heights of the Great Hall. Light streamed high overhead, and various calls of creatures chirped and gurgled from the shadows. 

Anakin's eyes traversed the dance of light and shadows playing before him, his face an unwieldily tangle of emotions from awe to disbelief. Through the Force, Anakin was bombarded by unbridled energies, not only from the life force of the wildlife before him, but from something else, something Anakin had not touched upon in a long, long time. Somewhere within the Temple walls, people were experiencing joy and happiness. 

"Welcome you home, I do!" a familiar voice called out to them. Anakin turned to find a very spry Yoda swinging down from a vine. Somersaulting elegantly to the ground, the Jedi's brown ponytail whipped behind his ear as he landed. 

_Ponytail!_

Anakin blinked as the diminutive Jedi Master walked towards him, unaided by a gimmer stick and unhindered by age in the first time for centuries. "Master Yoda?" Anakin wondered if what he was seeing was real. "You look...different." 

"Different, you say?" questioned Yoda impishly. "Why think you I look different?" 

"Oh...I dunno." Anakin shrugged. "Maybe it's the _hair_?" 

"My own hair, this is!" Yoda stamped his foot with mock indignance. 

Raising his hand defensively, Anakin replied, "Okay, okay!" 

Beside them, Obi-Wan laughed silently. 

"What you laugh at?" Yoda continued his pretend tirade, focusing on his former apprentice. 

Obi-Wan wiped away a tear from his eye and replied, "Just enjoying my own private showing of Rintz and Stagnold, Master." 

"Tut, tut, you two," spoke a deep and familiar voice behind Obi-Wan and Anakin. "You should know better than to tease little Ani." 

Anakin spun round, startled to see—"Qui-Gon!" 

The towering Jedi smiled gently down on him. "Welcome home, Anakin." 

Anakin reached out a hand and touched Qui-Gon's tunic. "Y—you're real." 

"As real as you or Yoda or Obi-Wan—yes." A twinkle of humour glittered in Qui-Gon's eye as he watched Anakin come to terms with his new reality. 

"And...the dream? That was real, too, wasn't it?" Anakin recalled the moments between his old life and his new one, the second chance he had relived to set things right. 

"Yes, Anakin. Everything is real here. Your focus—your thoughts—manifest your reality," Qui-Gon explained. 

Obi-Wan continued, "This place is made up of our thoughts, our memories. Things appear real here because we wish them to be." 

Anakin turned and looked down at Yoda. He quoted the old Master, "'Luminous beings are we—not this crude matter.'" 

"Paying attention were you?" teased Yoda. "Perhaps forgive you I will the comment you made about my hair." 

"Master!" Anakin replied exasperated. Obi-Wan laughed out loud as Qui-Gon chuckled. 

Taking a step forward, Qui-Gon rested a hand on Anakin's shoulder. Despite how tall Anakin had grown, it still seemed that the Jedi Master towered over him. 

In a serious tone, Qui-Gon spoke, "Anakin, there are still things left undone—still fears you must face. I've come to bring you to the Council chambers." 

Anakin looked up at Qui-Gon and frowned. In those moments between his physical life and this new one, he had faced the Council. The two members he had feared the most—who had also feared him—had made their peace with him. Who could possibly be in the chambers Anakin must still face? 

With dread, Anakin realised what it was. He lowered his eyes in shame, and replied, "I understand, Qui-Gon. I am ready to face what I've done."

* * *

Silently, they approached the Council chamber doors. Anakin eyed the tall wooden doors warily. The Emperor had burned away the etched lettering around the door frame and replaced it with dark metal, but here in this place of memory, the Jedi Code continued to shine brightly: 

_There is no emotion; there is peace.  
There is no ignorance; there is knowledge.  
There is no passion; there is serenity.  
There is no death; there is the Force._

The last time he read that Code was the last time he stepped through that door as Anakin Skywalker—and emerged as Darth Vader, ordained by the blood of innocents. 

Anakin took a deep breath. 

The doors parted, and the mid-day sun illuminated the room from all sides, but there was no one in the circle of seats. Puzzled, Anakin stepped inside, Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon following. 

Stopping just inside the circle, Anakin spied little heads hiding behind the chairs as youngling voices chattered quietly. His blood turned cold as the sense of déjà vu washed over him like a tidal wave. Just as before, a little blonde-haired boy came out from behind Mace's chair, clutching his training sabre and called, "Master Skywalker!" 

Anakin's body shook from head to toe as the boy stood before him, the youngling's eyes shining up with a mixture of fear and admiration. "Welcome home, Master Skywalker!" 

Breath caught in Anakin's throat as all the other children poured out from behind the chairs, also chiming their greetings of welcome, their faces alight with beaming smiles. 

Shuddering, Anakin fell to his knees before the boy, his eyes glistening with tears that would not fall. The boy smiled with understanding and took another step, then opened his arms wide. 

Anakin grabbed ahold of the boy and took him in his arms like a man drowning in his own regrets. He pressed the boy's body to his own and sobbed incoherently into the boy's cheeks. His eyes pressed shut, Anakin felt many pairs of hands touch him—his head, his shoulders, his back—as both children and his two mentors accepted him in a forgiving embrace. 

The boy pulled away, joy shining in his eyes as he spoke. "Master Skywalker! Look!" The boy dashed off behind them, past the open doors. Anakin stood and watched as the boy took the hand of a fair-haired woman and brought her in to the chambers. Bringing her before Anakin, the boy declared, "This is my mum!" 

Anakin looked down at the boy, then up at the mother. He felt no anger or hatred from either one of them—from anyone. Instead, only happiness and joy permeated the Force. 

The woman extended her hand. "I wanted to thank you," she said as she took Anakin's hand in her own. "If not for you, I would never have known my son." After shaking hands with Anakin, she put her hands around the boy's head and smiled down at him. Anakin sensed she truly was grateful, although it continued to mystify him as to why. 

One by one the children brought forward their parents, the parents speaking words of thanks and gratitude. Anakin shook each hand in turn, but his mind swirled out of control. 

"Excuse me," he said at last and stormed out of the room, leaving the glad parents with their Jedi younglings. 

Anakin stopped and leaned against the transparisteel that looked into the depths of the city from outside the Council chambers. He felt his former master approach from behind. In nearly a whisper, Anakin questioned, "Why are they thanking me? Because I killed them?" 

Obi-Wan crossed his wrists inside the folds of his cloak as he stood beside his friend. With a gentle voice, the older man requested, "Tell me what happened." 

Anakin turned slightly, his eyes probing Obi-Wan's. Finding no judgment there, Anakin began, "I asked them...if they remembered their mothers...before I killed them." Anakin's eyes flickered up again, and again Obi-Wan did not scowl nor judge him with a look of reprimand as he often did in his youth. His old master had accepted Anakin as he was, evil deeds and all. 

"Do you still remember your mother?" Obi-Wan's voice was kind, although he knew his words stirred harsh memories. 

Anakin looked down again. "I've tried so long not to." 

"Then, perhaps, like these younglings, it is time for you to remember again." 

Anakin shook his head. "Would she want to...after all I've done? I killed so many...so many..." He lifted his hands, staring at them intently as if he knew he would see blood there. 

Placing a hand on his friend's shoulder, Obi-Wan said, "If these children can forgive you for what you've done...don't you think your mother has enough love in her heart to forgive you as well?" 

Anakin glanced up from his hands into Obi-Wan's eyes. They were glistening in pain from watching his former apprentice unable to forgive himself. Anakin straightened, facing Obi-Wan, and looked over his shoulder to see Qui-Gon standing in the door frame behind them, his face full of silent understanding and compassion. Their eyes met, and the Jedi Master nodded his agreement to Obi-Wan's words. 

Refocusing on his former master and resting his own hand on Obi-Wan's shoulder, Anakin said, "I want to see my mother." 


End file.
